Conventionally, there has been known a vehicle air conditioning apparatus including: a compressor that compress a refrigerant and discharges the compressed refrigerant; a radiator that releases heat from the refrigerant; a heat exchanger that absorbs the heat into the refrigerant; and an outdoor heat exchanger that releases the heat from or absorbs the heat into the refrigerant (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
This vehicle air conditioning apparatus performs a heating operation by: allowing the refrigerant discharged from the compressor to flow into the radiator and release the heat in the radiator; allowing the refrigerant having passed through the radiator to flow into the outdoor heat exchanger via a first expansion valve and absorb the heat in the outdoor heat exchanger; and allowing the refrigerant having passed through the outdoor heat exchanger to be sucked into the compressor.
The vehicle air conditioning apparatus may perform a heating and dehumidifying operation by: allowing the refrigerant discharged from the compressor to flow into the radiator and release the heat in the radiator; allowing part of the refrigerant having passed through the radiator to flow into the outdoor heat exchanger via the first expansion valve and absorb the heat in the outdoor heat exchanger; allowing the remaining refrigerant to flow into the heat exchanger via a second expansion valve and absorb the heat in the heat exchanger; and allowing the refrigerant having passed through the outdoor heat exchanger and the heat exchanger to be sucked into the compressor.